


Feet on Ground (You´ll Come Round)

by Noducksinpond



Category: From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, F/M, Post-Season/Series 03
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-21
Updated: 2016-09-21
Packaged: 2018-08-16 12:13:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,122
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8101999
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Noducksinpond/pseuds/Noducksinpond
Summary: "Sometimes she can still hear Amaru´s voice in her head, even though according to Venganza and Ximena, she´s free. And she knows they´re right, but that doesn´t stop the nightmares. It doesn´t stop her from being scared though, that one day she´ll wake up and be stuffed back into the prison in her own head again, while Amaru took over." - Kate after Amaru





	

**Author's Note:**

> This was written prior to episode 4, so no spoilers for last night´s episode. There is however a couple of vague references to the plot synopsis for episode 6, so if you´re really scared of spoilers, maybe stop here :)
> 
> I´ve been really really blocked for a long time, because life has been kicking my ass, but considering I wrote most of this in one night, maybe we´re finally back on track. Regardless of that, I hope you enjoy this.

After Amaru, Kate´s head feels lighter, like something that had been pressing her down was suddenly lifted. She still sleeps like crap though, once she´s gone through almost 3 days of sleeping non-stop. All she sees in her nightmares are the Xibalban warriors, Amaru´s slaves, Manola and the doctor, and so many others crumble apart between her hands. Sometimes she can still hear Amaru´s voice in her head, even though according to Venganza and Ximena, she´s free. And she knows they´re right, but that doesn´t stop the nightmares.

It doesn´t stop her from being scared though, that one day she´ll wake up and be stuffed back into the prison in her own head again, while Amaru took over. That one day, she´d be back to being able to see and feel everything, but not being able to do- anything really. When she wakes up shaking, she reminds herself. _Amaru is gone, Amaru was banished back to hell, I´m free. I´m never going to get trapped again. Never again._

Richie seems to avoid her like the plague. Well, not quite that´s probably hyperbolic, but every time Kate gets near him these days, he looks scared of her. She can tell he´s trying not to be, but that he can´t help it. That he can´t get what Amaru did to him out of his head. Kate doesn´t blame him, it hurts like hell, but she isn´t mad at him for that. She apologizes to him once, or probably more, and Richie just gave her a sad small smile, telling her that it wasn´t her fault. Kate starts avoiding him too, because every time she is around Richie it seems like a wound is ripped open again. She knows that isn´t the right way to do this logically, but she´s not sure how else. How she can make it okay, or at least make it hurt less.

Santanico, no that´s wrong, she wanted to be called Kisa, isn´t around much. Kate remembers Amaru killing Manola, to hurt Kisa, but she doesn´t know who she was to her. She asks Seth to ask Richie, and Richie apparently tells him Manola was Kisa´s girlfriend. It´s a strange thought, because Kisa genuinely grieving and loving someone, doesn´t quite fit with the image of the snake queen in the centre of the place that tore her family apart, inside Kate´s head. But if there´s one thing, she´s learned it´s that people aren´t always what they seem. Kisa looks at her with grief and pain, and she doesn´t hide it. Kate asked her once, if she blames her. Kisa had sighed, and ended up telling her, she blamed Amaru. Kate still said she was sorry.

Kate can´t remember the last time, she talked this much with Scott. They weren´t really that close before the Twister, and they definitely weren´t after either. He doesn´t really actively seek her out. But he´s there for her, and on nights where Kate can´t sleep, which is most of them, they talk. Amaru hurt him too, and yet Scott doesn´t look worried in the slightest. When she asks him about it, he reminds her that he´s done plenty of shit too, and that was without being possessed by the queen of hell. Kate wants to tell him, that it´s not really the same, but despite that feeling, she never actually does. Maybe, it is just because she´s glad, he´s there. That he isn´t going anywhere.

Seth is the only one of them, who actively seeks her out, which seems weird. It´s been weeks and she can still see the cuts Brasa left behind. But he´s there nonetheless, most of the time really. On the other hand, it´s not weird at all, because it reminds her of Mexico. They´d never really had much time to themselves, or maybe neither of them had just wanted to be alone. And despite all the shit that happened in Mexico, it was 3 months were that was the normal. Or maybe she just missed him, but she doesn´t really want to think too much about that.

It´s Seth who interrupts her train of thought, as she is standing outside on the small balcony, it was probably an hour or two until dusk. She´s not even sure why the balcony is there in the first place, because 99% of the people who work here, Richie and Scott included are culebras. And who the hell would need a tiny balcony at night in Texas? But instead of thinking more about culebras and balconies, she turned her head to Seth. Seth gave her a look, that Kate couldn´t entirely decipher. “Are you okay?” he asked, probably to say just anything.

“Don´t know if I´ll ever be,” Kate mumbled, resting her chin in her hands. She was doing better than she had, right after the gate to Xibalba had been closed and Amaru had been defeated, but she didn´t feel okay, not really. She didn´t know when she wouldn´t wake up screaming. Or flinch when something was particularly bad.

“May take you a while,” Seth said quietly, without looking her in the eyes, just looking into the distance at the city. “But I think, you´ll be just fine."

“Why do you say that?” Kate asked, brushing her, thankfully brown, hair out of her face, giving him a searching look. Seth still wasn´t looking at her, and looked like he was considering running back to Mexico, but swallowed hard.

“Because you´re resilient, Katie. You´d have to be to put up with my high ass for 3 months in fucking Mexico.” It´s obvious that Seth wants to say more, it´s an old argument, from the time in Mexico, it was an argument they always got back to. That Kate wouldn´t even be there, if it wasn´t for his fuck up. That he could complain about her being mean, or petty all he wanted, but this was his fault. But he doesn´t mention that part now either, and Kate´s not even sure she wants him to. She´s not sure an apology would mean anything after all this time.

“Are you apologizing for the heroin?” Kate asked with a lifted eyebrow, because honestly she hadn´t even entirely expected him to apologize for that. He had once, the first time she´d had to help him shoot up. _I´m sorry I´m such shithead, Kate._ But he had never done it since. They had fought and argued about it a lot over those 3 months, but he had never apologized for it again. Seth looked down, before looking over at her.

“Got a hell of a lot to apologize to you for, Kate,” he said quietly, with a sad smile. Kate returned that smile. They could start at the kidnapping, the Twister, Mexico, kicking her out of that car, but Kate decided she didn´t want to. Maybe another time, but not right now. She wasn´t ready to pick a fight with the one person, who seemed almost the exact same, as before she died. Except he was better, not high, not grieving, and he was dealing. In a Seth Gecko way at least.

“And she got a sun god to kick you around,” Kate retorted without looking at him this time.

“It was a fairly equal fight,” Seth said quietly, clearly offended by the implication that Brasa had knocked him to a bloody pulp. Even though he kind of had. Amaru had been watching, so Kate had known that. “And that wasn´t you.”

“It didn´t feel like it,” Kate muttered under her breath. The best way, she could describe it was that she had been able to see everything Amaru had done, she could to a certain extent feel what Amaru had felt, like Amaru had been able to feel her. She could feel Amaru´s hate and bitterness, and she had mostly been able to make the distinction. In the beginning, they´d fought over the physical control too. And she hadn´t been able to tell, watching, whether the bitterness was whatever was left from him ditching her in Mexico, or Amaru´s bitterness that they kept screwing up her plan.

“Is that why you keep apologizing to Richie?” Seth asked. Kate should have known it was coming. Of course, he´d ask about Richie eventually. She was surprised, it had taken him weeks to do it. Maybe, he had been waiting for her to be more okay, before he wanted to ask.

“No,” Kate started quickly. “I mean- Not entirely. The reason she didn´t kill Scott, was because I managed to stop her. I was angry at Scott before I died, but I didn´t want-“ Kate paused and took a deep breath, looking down at her hands they were shaking. “She wanted to beat me down. She figured, if she kept hurting Richie and could hold me back, that I´d give up eventually. That I´d stop trying. I was angry at Richie too, before I died. But I would never- I would never be that cruel.”

“I know,” Seth said quietly, putting a hand on her arm. He had told her a week or so ago, that he´d thought Amaru was their punishment, for all the shit they´d done. Kate hadn´t known what to say to that. But even if he was lying to her now, which was an option, it was Seth after all, she was glad, he at least told her he didn´t think, she´d do what Amaru had done to Richie. Because she needed to hear it from somebody. That she could never have done that to him, to anybody.

“You think, he knows that too?” Kate asked, tears kind of stinging in the edge of her eyes, even though she was doing her best to hide them. It was nice, that he was just there. That they didn´t have to argue, or ask for forgiveness. They just existed in the same space together.

“If his brain is as big, as he thinks it is, then yeah. Of course, he knows that Katie,” Seth replied, and somehow she didn´t doubt, he was telling the truth. She just wished she could help, that she could make it easier for Richie to deal with it, for all of them to deal with everything. She kind of wished, she could make it easier for herself to deal with too. Kind of being the understatement of the century.

“Seth-“ Kate began, not even sure what she wanted to say. She swallowed hard.

“Yeah?” he replied, and Kate impulsively wrapped an arm around him, and pressed her face into his shoulder. She´d moved slowly, almost carefully, but Seth still seemed taken aback by it, standing completely frozen, before he wrapped an arm around her too, tugging her closer to him. Kate took a deep breath, he smelled nice, not that that was important. Not in the slightest. His other arm wrapped around her too. “What´s this for?” he asked in a quiet, almost soft tone, that was unfamiliar to her.

Kate couldn´t blame him for asking. They didn´t do this – the hug thing. They never got anywhere near each other in Mexico, always keeping a carefully calculated distance between them. Both physically and emotionally. There were certain things they didn´t talk about. In her case, it was because she still hated him, or thought she did anyway. In his case- well she hadn´t wanted to know. But here, somehow it felt okay. More than okay actually. Kate could feel something stinging at the edge of her eyes. “For being a nice person for once,” Kate said, looking up at him.

“Hey, I´m always nice!” Seth argued, so obnoxiously offended that Kate actually laughed at him. She wasn´t sure, if he actually was or not, probably not. Seth gave her a glare, which she rebuffed with a smirk. It was enough to bait him, because of course it was. It was Seth Gecko after all. “I am!”

“If you say so, Mr Career Criminal,” Kate retorted, her grin only growing wider, and Seth´s glare fading slightly. She turned on her heel, and walked back into the house, a strange uplifting feeling in her chest.


End file.
